The Forest Kindergarteners started off their week with a ramp rescue mission! We transplanted ramps, also known as wild leeks, moving them from a nearby area that is undergoing logging to a safe new home. With care and tenderness, the children tucked the plants into their new home, gingerly handling their bunny ear leaves and lovingly watering their roots. Not far away we found false hellebore, a look-alike of ramps and explored ways to ID plants. We hope that ramps can be a gateway plant to forming a deep love of all plants—edible, delicious and all those in between!
Here are some of the guidelines we encourage think about when it comes to wild edibles:
- Ask: Ask permission from the plant before picking. For children, ask an adult before harvesting.
- Be 100% sure it’s edible! Always make sure you are positive a plant is edible by checking field guides and with a trusted adult.
- Know common look-alikes: Be sure you’re harvesting your intended plant, not an imposter! This is especially important because some look-alikes could be toxic!
- Parts of a plant: Be sure which parts of the plant are edible. Sometimes only certain parts of a plant are OK to eat while others you can eat all parts from the root to the flower.
- Pollution: Make sure the area you are picking from isn’t polluted by humans or a pit stop for dogs 🙂
- Take only what you need: Learning new plants or finding delicious old friends is exciting! Remember to take only what you will eat, within reason, and never waste your harvest. Only harvest where a plant is abundant and never harvest if it is the only plant of its kind. Raei shared an indigiounous harvesting practice of never taking from the first patch you find or the last.
- Give thanks! Find a way to appreciate—through song, a little whisper, or whatever way feels right—to give thanks to the plant!
A note about ramps: A boom in popularity has led to overharvesting. If you are going to harvest ramps, only pick a few leaves where they are very abundant (hundreds of plants). Never harvest the roots, as this will kill the plant.
Back at camp, the children tended the fire where we roasted bread on a stick and steamed ramps. We needed some serious muscle too, because we were making ramp butter! After mixing cream and chopping ramps, the children took turns shaking the jar until liquid separated into buttermilk and the best butter in the world!
The Cobble Woolly Bears celebrated leeks this week, too! The students divided into groups—some chopped leeks to cook on the fire, others shook the leek butter until it solidified, some started to fill their tins with nature experiments and cloth for the making of easily lit charred material, while others practiced their knife-carving skills. Meanwhile bread on a stick roasted over the fire to be spread with leek butter!
—JJ, Chris, and the Forest K staff
April 30, 2021